South Plainfield: Sen. Diegnan Sponsors Two Veterans' Bills

By TAPINTO EDISON STAFF

November 25, 2016 at 7:37 PM

Content Options

Credits: Submitted photo

By TAPINTO EDISON STAFF

November 25, 2016 at 7:37 PM

SOUTH PLAINFIELD – The Senate and Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved two bills sponsored by State Sen. Patrick Diegnan, D-18, that would pay for transportation for veterans outside of VA hospitals, according to a Nov. 22 press release.

“This is about treating veterans with compassion and decency. This bill will make sure those who must travel a significant distance to a veterans’ health care facility have an appropriate means of transportation funded by the state,” Diegnan said in the release. “This is the right thing to do for those who have served this country with dignity, in what may be their greatest time of need.”

Bill S-2594 requires the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs to create a program paying counties and towns to provide transportation for veterans living outside 30 miles from a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center, the release said.

According to the release, counties and towns getting the money to transport the veterans would have to use vehicles with a functioning bathroom. The bill allows a county or town to use the money for an existing transportation service it operates, as long as it meets the bill’s requirements, the release said.

The money for the bill would come from a state appropriation of $500,000 in grants for local transportation services to buy vehicles with bathroom facilities, according to the release.

The second bill, S-2592 would pay to transport veterans living in state operated nursing home facilities to their local doctor.

According to the release, Diegnan proposed the bill once the department enforced the policy that charged residents living in these facilities a fee for transportation to a doctor’s office even though the facility had a doctor in-house. The department would pay the costs under the bill from the operation in each of the state’s three long-term care nursing homes for veterans and their spouses, the release said. Those facilities are located in Paramus, Menlo Park, and Vineland, the release said.

“We have to make sure that our state’s policies are not creating obstacles for veterans who are seeking access to health care,” Diegnan said. “This will cover the cost of transportation for some our most vulnerable residents who live in veterans’ homes operated by the state, reinstituting a practice that had previously existed in these facilities.”

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - He was always called "Joker," short for Canine 832 Joker's Wild, and for five years, this bloodhound assisted police in Middlesex County on countless missing persons and other investigations.

In 2015, after a young woman was violently assaulted and left for dead, Joker found a track and led law enforcement officers to a residence, and ultimately led to the identity of her ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - He was always called "Joker," short for Canine 832 Joker's Wild, and for five ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - Middlesex County residents can get a close-up view of law enforcement use of police dogs, defensive tactics, and SWAT teams early next year at the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office Civilian Academy.

Sheriff's officers will conduct evening classes once each week for eight weeks, starting March 4, 2019, at the Middlesex County Fire Academy in Sayreville.

The two-hour ...

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - Middlesex County residents can get a close-up view of law enforcement use of ...

SOMERVILLE, NJ - Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital/Somerset is holding a blood drive this month in honor of Thomas Gorman, of Middlesex, a longtime donor who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 and his brother, John Gorman, of South Plainfield, whose life was cut short by cancer in 2016.

For several years, the Gorman family has celebrated their ...

SOMERVILLE, NJ - Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital/Somerset is holding a blood drive this ...

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ - On April 29, 2018, as Reanna Nelson played in a Hillsborough Soccer Club game, her grandfather, Romano Borgobello, was stricken while watching from the sidelines. When he became unresponsive, Hillsborough residents Kris Cauda and Alex Wnorowski both registered nurses, along with Marc DeMaio, who is about to be sworn in as a police officer in Old Bridge, performed CPR.

The ...

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ - On April 29, 2018, as Reanna Nelson played in a Hillsborough Soccer Club game, ...

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ The "Momo Challenge" is an alleged form of cyberbullying that spreads through social media and cell phones. After phone users are enticed to contact a user named "Momo" through the social media network WhatsApp, they receive graphic threats from the user and are instructed to perform a series of dangerous tasks. Yesterday, the East Brunswick Public Schools issued a community ...

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ The "Momo Challenge" is an alleged form of cyberbullying that spreads through ...

PISCATAWAY, NJ - There are few things better in college wrestling than a good old-fashioned rivalry dual, and there aren’t too many states better at having them than New Jersey.

The crowd at Rutgers Athletic Center certainly made it seem that way, as the Rutgers wrestling team, ranked No. 25 in the country, hosted their rivals from Lawrenceville, Rider. Thanks to the efforts of standouts ...

PISCATAWAY, NJ - There are few things better in college wrestling than a good old-fashioned rivalry ...

SOMERVILLE, NJ - Santa gets around this time of year in any number of ways - firetrucks, flatbed trucks, horse-drawn carriage, small airplanes, and courtesy of the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, a huge, lumbering SWATmobile.

Santa was the guest of honor at the Steeplechase Cancer Center at Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas University Hospital this week, courtesy of the Somerset County ...

SOMERVILLE, NJ - Santa gets around this time of year in any number of ways - firetrucks, flatbed ...

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ - Volunteers blanketed the grave sites of hundreds of veterans with wreaths at Sacred Heart Cemetery Saturday as part of the national remembrance day sponsored by Wreaths Across American.

The cemetery on Millstone-River Road is one of 1,400 sites nationally to honor America’s veterans with remembrance wreaths.

Wreaths Across America, a non-profit organization based in ...

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ - Volunteers blanketed the grave sites of hundreds of veterans with wreaths at ...